Loops! Rolls! Spins! And a Lomcevak?

How did I come to perform extreme Czech aerobatic maneuvers over the California desert last fall? Aerobatics Camp, of course!

After I earned my private pilot certificate, one of the first things on my mind was upset recovery training — and more specifically, spins. Spins are one of those things that give most pilots the heebie-jeebies, and they should. Stall/spin accidents account for almost 14% of all fatal accidents according to AOPA. More than that, I wanted a chance to beef up my stick and rudder skills, something that aerobatics are great for. And the place I wanted to do it was Tutima Academy, airshow superstar Sean D. Tucker’s own aerobatics school out in central California.

I typically make my way to California a couple of times each year on business, so I decided to wait for my next trip out to the West Coast to visit Tutima. I got my chance in October 2013.

Tutima Academy is located in King City, California, a small farming town that’s about a two hour drive from greater San Francisco (and an hour south of my hometown, Monterey). There isn’t much in the way of distractions in King City — but it’s home to a quiet airport and approximately 360 days of VFR weather each year. The flight school is housed in a nice facility located on the edge of the airport. Once you make your way through the lobby, you’re greeted by a hangar filled with amazing toys:

I went with Tutima’s Pilot Confidence Training program, a 2-day course that focuses on loss of control and basic aerobatics. Included in the program was 6 hours in the classroom and 3.2 hours of flight time in the Extra 300L.

The Training

Training at Tutima Academy begins in the morning with a classroom session that covers the aerodynamics of what we’ll be doing in the airplane afterwards. Then, a lunch break, rinse, and repeat. It’s two full day of flying and ground school — I can think of worse ways to spend my time.

My instructor, Ken Erickson, was phenomenal. There’s no other way to describe his teaching style. Despite the fact that I was a wet-behind-the-ears 100-hour private pilot at the time, Ken was very patient and quick with encouragement. That’s saying something considering that the Extra 300 is a high-performance taildragger stunt plane that’s lightyears away from the Cessnas and Pipers I was used to flying.

The first time I took off in the Extra (with lots of rudder help from Ken), I was shoved back in my seat. The plane weighs next to nothing, and it’s propelled by a huge engine and massive disc of a prop. It’s eye opening to push the throttle forward for the first time. The controls are also very sensitive — the Extra has a roll rate of 340 degrees per second, and it’s not hard to see why. As we went airborne for the first time, I couldn’t help but think “what have I gotten myself into?” But it didn’t take long to start getting comfortable at the controls.

“You just lost your elevator…”

The PCT course isn’t about playing around in the sky. It’s real training that’s designed to get you to think outside of the box and cope with uncommon scenarios.

A perfect example of that was when Ken told me that I suddenly had a stuck elevator. You can see what happened here:

Unbeknownst to me, our pre-flight ground session planted the seed for how to deal with the session. But Ken let me work it out on my own, and as a result, that lesson is permanently etched in my head. The great thing about Tutima Academy is knowing that you can’t break the plane (it’s rated to ±10G, so you’ll break before the airplane does), and the guy in the back won’t let something bad happen. You’re free to get yourself in trouble… and then figure out how to get out of it.

I learned a lot about flying from my two days in King City (and now my logbook sports a high-performance endorsement in one of the coolest planes out there). And I’m eager for more. I’ll definitely be heading back for Tutima Academy’s 5-day Aerobatic Performance Training in the future.

In the meantime, you can check out a short sampling of Extra flying in the video below:

Pilot Confidence Training at Tutima Academy from Checkride or Bust on Vimeo.

Enjoy!